Govt looses thousands of crores due to deficiency of B/S cadre staff in MES, points out BSP MP

Few months earlier we saw Chief Justice of India (CJI) TS Thakur who broke down in front of PM Narendra Modi. Justice Thakur was most vexed about India’s overworked Judiciary and bemoaned that the common man’s faith in justice system is at an all-time low. He also pointed out the lack of judges in the judiciary system.

Unlike judiciary, the Military engineer services (MES) is also facing the issue that is lack of man power in the B/S cadre. There are different cadres in MES like IDSE, Surveyor, Architect, Admin cadre and B/S cadre. Three cadre review of the other cadres have been approved by the Government Of India but unfortunately first cadre review of B/S cadre has not seen the light of the day till date and it is unlikely that it may get approval of Govt of India in upcoming years with present approach of the Ministry of Defence in handling the issues of B/S cadre.

The problem is that both the issues have been raised by the B/S cadre in front of the Government several times but all the efforts are in vain. MES has been ignored from past 10 years. During the UPA Government, this vital issue of loss of revenue of amounting Rs 3000 Crores every year due to shortage of B/S cadre staff in MES was raised but ignored.

Whereas a BSP MP Ambeth Rajan questioned Minister of Defence and got very vague replies. According to the Minister, ‘ the vacancies are accumulated over a period of time and the shortage of subordinate staff in Barracks and Stores (B&S) Cadre, loss of revenue cannot be ruled out. However, no estimates of Revenue Loss due to nonfilling up of vacancies in B&S Cadres has been arrived at.’

Both the Government failed to take proper necessary steps to address this important issue. This raises a big question mark on the assurance of ‘Good Governance’ given by the present Central Government.